"You want to purchase the Water of Life?" Xia Wuyuan glanced at Shi Feng's somewhat pale face, clearly puzzled. "Your current authority is one-star high-level, which limits you to exchanging for one bottle per year. The Water of Life's main function is restoring life. With a mental grandmaster's abilities, if it's simply a matter of repairing physical damage or restoring mental energy, life potions or the meditation potions unique to the Middle Zone should be more than sufficient. Are you sure you want to exchange for it?"
"Only one bottle of Water of Life per year?"
The moment Shi Feng heard that, he fell into a heavy silence.
With Bai Qingxue and Shuise Qiangwei's current conditions, if they were living in the large villa, sustaining them for a year wouldn't be an issue at all. But the situation with Zero Wing right now couldn't wait that long. They needed to handle too many things in the real world — especially at Zero Wing's headquarters. With only Fire Dance and Thunder Leopard the Grandmaster holding the fort, it was far from enough, let alone the fact that Fire Dance and the others still needed to come to the Upper Zone to live and train…
"If you want more Water of Life, there are other ways," Xia Qingying said from the side, a faint smile on her face as she watched the somewhat disheartened Shi Feng. "As a genius who broke through to mental grandmaster before the age of thirty in our Yuantian City Upper Zone, the Green God Corporation does have a reward for you."
"A reward?" Shi Feng immediately perked up with interest.
"That's right — a reward for breaking through to mental grandmaster before thirty," Xia Wuyuan nodded. "However, I wouldn't recommend exchanging this reward for Water of Life, because even three-star mental grandmasters covet it. The reward grants you one opportunity to enter the Core Zone — the top level of this very mountain — for a one-month study period. It would be immensely beneficial for elevating your mental level. In contrast, exchanging it for Water of Life would be a tremendous waste. Water of Life can be exchanged for anytime, but a reward like this? You only get one shot at it, and only when you reach three-star mental grandmaster status, and for a mere ten days at that. Are you certain you want to exchange it for Water of Life?"
"I want the exchange!" Shi Feng said without the slightest hesitation.
"All right, I don't understand you young people," Xia Wuyuan sighed, clearly dissatisfied with Shi Feng's choice. He felt Shi Feng was squandering a golden opportunity. He turned to Xia Qingying beside him. "I need to go report this upstairs. I'll leave things here to you, Qingying."
Xia Qingying nodded obediently. After finishing his words, Xia Wuyuan turned and left the villa nestled by the charming little waterfall amid birdsong and fragrant flowers, with no intention of continuing the conversation. Shi Feng could only smile bitterly in his heart.
"Don't take it too hard — Grandpa just wishes you'd push yourself harder. He doesn't understand the specifics of your situation," Xia Qingying said, watching Xia Wuyuan's retreating figure before turning back to the wryly smiling Shi Feng. "Since you want to exchange for the Water of Life, you need two bottles, correct?"
"Can I exchange for two bottles at once?" Shi Feng was momentarily stunned.
He had assumed this reward would only cover one bottle of Water of Life, and that he'd need to spend points and contribution credits for the second. But from the sound of it, his reward could cover both bottles.
"This reward from the Green God Corporation entitles you to exchange for three bottles of Water of Life. If you only want two, I'd recommend exchanging the remaining bottle for Meditation Potions. The effects of Meditation Potions are not only superior to the Illusion Heart Potions, but they also have the ability to restore mental energy. A one-star mental grandmaster can only exchange for five bottles per year. But if you exchange now, you can trade one bottle of Water of Life directly for ten bottles of Meditation Potions."
"Deal — I'll exchange for ten bottles of Meditation Potions then," Shi Feng nodded, secretly marveling at the generosity of this Green God Corporation reward.
A single reward worth three bottles of Water of Life — that was more than a hundred times what the Mental Pathway had offered. True prodigal wealth. It only underscored how precious an opportunity it was to enter the Core Zone — the mountaintop area — for study. No wonder Xia Wuyuan had been so disappointed in his choice.
Xia Qingying nodded slightly and continued in a measured tone: "You probably can't return to the Basic Zone right now, so I'll deliver those two bottles of Water of Life directly to them. As for the ten bottles of Meditation Potions, you can simply exchange for them in the storage room inside the villa."
"I appreciate the help, Director Xia," Shi Feng expressed his gratitude.
"No need for thanks — it's simply part of my duties. After all, you could say you're a talent I personally discovered. The better your performance in the Middle Zone, the more it helps me as well," Xia Qingying waved her hand dismissively with a faint smile. "Well then, I won't keep you from resting."
After that, Xia Qingying boarded a hovering car and departed from the Middle Zone, leaving Shi Feng alone, gazing quietly at the top-tier villa before him.
This small waterfall villa was actually larger in area than the grand villa in the Basic Zone. The waterfall alone covered an area the size of two basketball courts, and the moisture it carried was truly extraordinary. A single breath of it left one feeling refreshed throughout the entire body. In terms of restoring life force to the body, it was likely comparable to an S-rank nutritional supplement — and with absolutely no side effects at that.
One could say this little waterfall was essentially an unlimited supply machine for a weakened version of S-rank nutritional supplements. If this were brought to the outside world, its value would be incalculable — something the major financial groups out there wouldn't even dare to dream of. After all, even for those major financial groups, the amount of S-rank nutritional supplements they could acquire was extremely limited. Drinking it like water wasn't possible even for the powerful factions living in the Basic Zone.
Shi Feng then stepped inside the house.
"No wonder anyone from the Basic Zone who comes to live in the Middle Zone never wants to go back," Shi Feng murmured as he looked at the spacious hall, a sudden sense of clarity washing over him.
After entering the villa, the sound of rushing water outside vanished entirely — the soundproofing was absolutely perfect. And the ambient special energy inside was actually twice as dense as it was outside.
Living in such an environment — even lying around doing nothing — one's physical constitution would likely reach half-step Body Tempering Grandmaster level. With just a bit of exercise, reaching full Body Tempering Grandmaster physical standards would pose no problem whatsoever.
Moreover, it had an enhancing effect on the mind, keeping one in a state of mental pleasure and spiritual clarity. Training in such an environment over a long period, even if one couldn't become a mental grandmaster, one would surely come very close.
It was hard to imagine how terrible it would be to leave such an environment and return to life in the Basic Zone. It would be like a billionaire with a rich, fulfilling life suddenly becoming an ordinary person — the contrast was something no ordinary person could accept. No wonder Fang Shihan had been so determined to protect the Middle Zone's reserved quota.
As long as she could stay in the Middle Zone, Fang Shihan would have a significant chance of becoming a mental grandmaster — at least double the opportunity compared to the Basic Zone.
"So this is the storage room?" Shi Feng looked at the small room constructed entirely of special metal, deeply impressed by the Green God Corporation's financial might.
On the storage room's display screen, every resource available for exchange in the entire Middle Zone was listed — even the Water of Life was there. If you wanted something, you could exchange for it directly in the storage room and receive your potions immediately, with no need to make a special trip to the Green God Tower when an urgent need arose. It was an incredible convenience for those living in the Middle Zone.
Shi Feng decided to give it a try right away.
The storage room's laser scanned across Shi Feng, and all identification was completed in an instant. The screen displayed the ten bottles of Meditation Potions available for exchange. A single bottle of Meditation Potions cost four million points and one hundred thousand contribution credits.
Four million points wasn't much for a financial group based in the Basic Zone, but one hundred thousand contribution credits was a different story entirely. Even the Wuzhou Grand Financial Group would feel the sting of spending one hundred thousand contribution credits.